1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to food processing appliances for applying coatings and toppings to food products. More specifically, the present invention relates to a machine for automatically spreading butter and sprinkling garlic cheese topping on loaves of bread as they are carried along a table-top conveyor apparatus.
2. Background of the Related Art
Machines which dispense foodstuffs onto moving pieces of bread are known, for instance, in the sandwich-making and pizza-making arts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,260 to Weger, for example, discloses a sandwich-making machine having spreadable material dispensers for mustard and mayonnaise. Additionally, the patent discloses rough material dispensers which can dispense grated cheese, chopped onions or the like onto sandwich bread. Although a device of this type could be used to apply a spreadable material and a cheese topping to slices of bread, the apparatus includes additional structure unnecessary for such a procedure. As a result, the device of Weger is economically too large, complex, and costly for such an application. In short, the use of the Weger device for such a purpose would be less efficient than using a smaller device designed exclusively for buttering bread and sprinkling a cheese topping.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,618 discloses a device which is capable of applying sauce, cheese and sausage to pizza dough. It automatically adjusts the amount of sauce, cheese and sausage according to the indicated size of the pizza dough. Such a device, like the Weger sandwich-making device, would be expensive and impractical to employ for applying butter (or margarine) and a cheese topping to bread.